First Dungeon Experience (3)
Battle Aura.
Among a Priest's most cost-effective basic skills, this buff stood in a class of its own — rivaled only by Cure. Invest a single skill point, and you walked away with a fifteen percent boost to attack and defense for a full sixty seconds.
If it didn't lean so hard on ultimates, Priest would've been the default for pretty much every multiclass build.
Wooong—!!
Battle Aura
A pale white aura blooms around the caster, empowering every member of the party.
A pale white aura began to bloom around Zion, faint at first, then spreading outward in a halo of light. The hidden strength of Battle Aura had always been that it didn't stop at the user — it empowered every party member as well.
God's protection descends upon you.
Attack Power increased by 200%
Defense increased by 200%
Holy shit...!! What kind of buff numbers are these?!
This is the new power Unnie bestowed on us?!
But just as Cure and Revival had been, Battle Aura had been enhanced to a degree that defied all reason. Ifrit and Rin, now standing under Zion's buff, could only gape at the absurd figures. This was enough to crush the blessings granted by Miracle without even trying. This — this was the power of a legendary-grade Saintess.
The Forgotten Battlefield
It should have existed only as a record,
yet in this distorted reality, it spread its wings once more.
The trials of the past may have been light,
but the killing intent before your eyes is a heavy truth.
And so the hero clenched her fist again.
Help her defeat the sworn enemy of her past.
🎁 Reward:???
And that wasn't the end of it. The two of them checked the quest that had suddenly appeared, and their eyes went wide as lanterns.
The difference between a regular quest and a hidden quest came down to one thing: whether a reward was listed. If the reward was displayed outright, it was a regular quest. If not, it was hidden. The rule wasn't foolproof, but most adventurers used it as a rule of thumb.
"Let's see..."
"Zion!!"
"Yes?"
"Leave the vanguard to me!!"
They would have thrown themselves into helping Zion even without a reward. Having one on top of that only made them more fired up.
Ifrit struck first. The flames that erupted around her took the shape of a massive firebird, then crashed down on the Golden Gryphon like a savage storm. Her empowered fire melted through its feathers as if they were paper.
Kieeeeeek!!
"My turn next!"
The instant that inferno had scorched away every last scrap of the gryphon's hide and plumage, Rin kicked off the ground and shot forward like a flash of light. The overwhelming buff, the defense Ifrit had stripped away with fire — every condition was perfect. Every condition except one. There was still a single thing she lacked to finish the monster off, and that was her own skill.
At my current level, I couldn't even cut through all its legs, let alone its neck. In that case, at the very least...!!
The youngest High Ranker in the Tower's history. In terms of raw talent, she had even been called the peak among all of them — which, put another way, meant that talent had not yet fully bloomed. A reality she had no choice but to acknowledge, however reluctantly.
I won't make the same mistake twice.
In that instant, the Sword Dragon's blade came crashing down on the gryphon's forelegs like a bolt of lightning.
"Now, Unnie!!!"
Having lost both forelegs, the gryphon's upper body pitched forward. Its wings had melted away completely; it couldn't even fly. They had never once practiced together, and yet the teamwork was flawless. No wonder they were High Rankers. At this point, the Golden Gryphon was starting to look downright pitiful — but a job was a job.
"At the very least, I'll send you to the Lord's side in a single painless blow!!"
Crunch!
The ground, unable to withstand that staggering force, split open with a crack. In the same instant, Zion's figure rocketed into the sky. It was closer to a leap than true flight, but the altitude was so extreme that everyone watching briefly thought she had taken to the air.
Meteor Kick
In the original Dungeon & Soul, it had been a mediocre skill — nothing more than a diagonal kick launched from a jump. A fringe technique looked down on in both the Arena and raids was, right here and now, beginning to display overwhelming power.
A single shaft of light falling from the heavens. Zion's body carved through empty air, tracing an arc like a shooting star.
CRACK! KRA-BOOM!!
A meteor's kick slams dead-on into the Golden Gryphon's skull.
Zion's kick, falling like a meteor, slammed dead-on into the Golden Gryphon's head. The explosion that followed was so tremendous that even the two High Rankers were shoved backward. How much time passed after that?
"Hah."
The choking cloud of dust cleared, and Zion emerged, a pair of items in her hands.
So even a boss monster gets to drop items, huh.
Zion smirked as she looked at what she was holding. Every piece was a nostalgic relic she hadn't seen in a long time. In her right hand was a necklace engraved with a Golden Gryphon motif. In her left, a white sword — a clean, elegant longsword, closer in silhouette to a four-edged ritual blade than a conventional longsword. Both were drops from the Golden Gryphon.
"Unnie! Are you all right?!"
"That was one hell of an attack just now!"
I don't need these anyway... I'll just give them to the two of them.
Even if they were convenient marks she could work to the bone, once you'd put someone to work, handing over a decent reward was only natural. Besides, the Golden Gryphon was a tutorial-area boss, so none of its drops were particularly impressive. If she could toss them some junk as payment for working two High Rankers and walk away clean, she'd actually be coming out ahead.
"First, allow me to thank you both for so readily coming to my aid, sisters."
"Don't mention it. This much is nothing."
"If I was of help to you, Unnie, that's enough for me. If it's all right... perhaps we could take a bath together later..."
"That might be a bit difficult... Instead, I'd like to give you these as a reward."
Zion showed them the items in her hands. They would each pick the one they wanted. She had expected them to light up with joy — but instead the two of them went silent, staring at the items with deadly serious expressions.
Had they figured out they were trash? Zion felt a guilty twinge. Unfortunately for her, that was not the reason at all.
Once, its valor tore the heavens and shook even the earth.
But now, having sinned and been cast out,
its claws and fangs have gone dull,
and its valor is nothing but a hollow echo.
◈ Attack Power +275%
◈ Attack increases by 1% for every 1% of HP lost
◈ When HP falls below 10%, a barrier is generated
In the days when it was still a divine beast,
an ornament permitted only to royalty.
Once a guardian that protected the dignity of kings —
now, not a soul even remembers it.
◈ Nullifies death exactly once
Needless to say, Rusted Glory — which nullified death a single time — was absurd. But Faded Valor's effects were equally insane. Legendary-grade equipment forged from precious Dragon Hearts only boosted attack by around three hundred percent. And yet Valor's base attack boost was only slightly lower than legendary-grade gear. Everything else was practically on the same level.
"In that case, I'll take the sword."
"That's unexpected. I figured you'd go for Rusted Glory."
"If Unnie is by my side, I won't die anyway."
"...I can't exactly stay by your side forever, can I?"
"Then I guess Rusted Glory is mine by default."
Just as they were each choosing an item as their reward, a change came over the massive gryphon's corpse. Like the last remnants of a burned-out pyre, ash scattered on the wind and began to sprinkle across the golden forest. And what remained in its place was a purple crystal about the size of a boulder. Zion tilted her head.
"...What's this?"
"A magic stone. A crafting material that drops when a monster dies. And at the same time..."
Kyuaaaa!
Right in the middle of Ifrit's explanation, something came leaping in from somewhere, accompanied by the sound of pounding feet. It turned out the hatchling — which had quietly fled before the fight even started — had caught the scent of the magic stone and come back. This time, though, it didn't go for Zion. It lunged straight at the boulder-sized magic stone the Golden Gryphon had left behind.
"Well, as you can see, dragons eat them as food, too."
"I see."
"Anyway, looks like everyone's walking away happy."
"That's true... My goal was only ever to find food for this little one, after all."
Watching the hatchling greedily devour the magic stone, Zion fell into thought. She was a little tired, but she had hunted a nostalgic monster in a nostalgic dungeon for the first time in ages, and she had accomplished her goal. All in all, not a bad outing.
The problem is what to name it.
And so Zion's needless deliberation stretched on and on.